I guess it gets easier but no, it never goes away. My mom was my best friend. We spoke on the phone 5 or 6 times a day - even when I lived at home! She was the one I went to for everything. She died unexpectedly on June 10, 2005 at 6:05 am

4 months before my wedding. One of the last things we did together was buy my wedding gown. I treasure the memory of that day so much. I miss her SO much. Therapy helped and I've always kept a journal, and I find writing out my feelings when they hit me to be very cathartic.
If I go to a place she and I went to together it's really hard. If I hear "Thank You" by Natalie Merchant I lose it completely - that was the song I was going to dedicate to my parents at my wedding. The lyrics are so perfect and so painful now.
I held my mom's hand when she passed, quietly and (we hope) painlessly. She
d been sick for years but this wasn't supposed to be . . . this wasn't supposed to be it. The first time it really "hit" me that mom was gone - a few weeks after she passed I went to Target on my lunch hour. I saw a really cute brown skirt and thought "do I own a brown skirt? Do I have shoes to go with it? It's $16.99 should I get it?" and instinctively dialed mom. I
always dialed my mom for everything! I caught myself just as I was hitting the "talk" button and completely lost it right in the middle of Target.
My sister had a bad relationship with our mother, whereas mom and I were as thick as thieves. She once gave me a keychain that said "mom always liked me best"

So, my sister has not gone through the gutt wrenching pain that I have gone through. I wondered aloud to DH recently, how lucky my sister is that she hasn't felt the depths of this pain and he corrected me - sure my sister is o.k. now but would I give up all of the wonderful times, laughs, trips, deep talks, all the time I had with mom just to not hurt so much now? No way!!
God Bless all of you who have lost someone. I am able now, 1.5 years later, to think of the happy times more than the sad, but it never goes away. Heck, I cried typing this!

Daddy has terminal cancer and is coming up on the 3-year mark - the doctors gave him 3 years - I don't know how I could handle going through it all again
